While there are a wide variety of styles and sizes of ice chests or coolers on the market today, the larger coolers still suffer from being difficult to carry over distances. This is especially true where the cooler is being carried up hills or the like for a picnic. Thus, the size of the cooler used for a picnic was limited to that which could be easily transported in the vehicle and then carried to the picnic site. While a larger cooler could carry more food and related items, it could not be easily carried from the vehicle for any great distance.
One attempt to solve this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,194 to Philip Vega, wherein an ice chest was outfitted with a pair of wheels affixed to the bottom, and a handle was connected to the side to push the wheeled cooler. While the ice chest of that patent is certainly more easily moved along the ground to the picnic site than a cooler without wheels, it is much less convenient to fit into a vehicle. The handle and wheels project outwardly so as to interfere and cause problems in arranging such an ice chest in the vehicle.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an improved cooler having retractable wheels.
Another object is to provide a cooler with wheels which do not project beyond the cooler housing when in a retracted position.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a cooler with wheels that may be extended to an operable position and which also retract within the cooler housing for storage.
Another object is to provide a cooler that is economic to manufacture, simple to operate, and refined in appearance.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.